When a seasoned magazine editor took her daughter to the bookstore, they found scientists and explorers in magazines for boys. For girls: princesses, cover girls in make-up and tips for shinier hair.

On today’s show a new magazine for girls has plenty of creative, inspiring ideas, and no lipstick!

Also today, aspiring doctors get all they can from med school, for the rest, they turn to actors. We'll find out how playing sick is helping to make better doctors. And the 5-second rule gets the science treatment.

Concepts of gender are shifting in workplaces, schools and public bathrooms across America. But how about on the track, or court or pool where athletes compete as male or female? Today, how new Olympics guidelines define gender, and a fair fight.

And later in the show, an upset among the dignified crosswords puzzles set! We'll find out why the New York Times puzzle makers are being called tone-deaf.

In the newest edition of Kids Count, a report produced by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, New Hampshire comes in at No. 4 in the nation for overall child well-being. Much of the rankings used in the report use data from 2014.

Dueling was once a common part of the American experience. Today, we’ll learn more about this history and some popular dueling spots that that public can still visit today.

And what if we're wrong about everything? Pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman takes on the difficult task of predicting how our present will be viewed hundreds of years from now. We'll talk about the next great American novelist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and the improbable factor that kept Hamilton on the ten dollar bill.

Even with all the angst about mid-life crises, and birthday cards calling you over the hill, the author says the middle years are most often about renewal. Today we're talking with former NPR correspondent Barbara Bradley Hagerty on what she discovered about middle age in America.

Hospital officials say a nationwide shortage of psychiatrists has limited their ability to treat patients - while the unit is licensed to treat 12 adult and six adolescent patients, staffing issues have meant they've only had an average of three to four adults a day.

Less than a week after New Hampshire’s first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Plymouth, another is poised to open on Thursday in Dover.

The Department of Health and Human Services has officially certified Temescal Wellness, which was selected to operate two of the state's New Hampshire’s four medical marijuana dispensaries, to start serving patients at its Dover location. The company says it plans to open its doors at noon on Thursday.

With the NFL recently admitting that repeated blows to the head can cause degenerative brain disease, we take a time-out to scan the research on brain trauma, including innovations in reducing incidents and assessing concussions. But is what we're learning discouraging participation in contact sports? And is rising concern over brain injury backed by science?

The question of whether to continue New Hampshire's expanded Medicaid program has been one of the top State House policy debates this year.

But it's something local governments are mulling over as well. In City Halls across the state, officials say the program has led to some significant savings: in the slice of taxpayers’ money set aside for medical and prescription aid, and indirect savings in other areas.

A state website that helps people compare prices across healthcare facilities relaunched this week with an expanded library of medical procedures and new information on hospital-quality measures.

The new version of NHHealthCost.Org features 31 additional medical procedures, including physical therapy, behavioral health and chiropractic care. Cost estimates for 16 dental procedures are now available, as well as new information on the retail price of 65 brand-name and generic drugs.

Right now, those new facilities still have to go through a few more rounds of inspections before they can open their doors and start serving patients. Once they do open, patients will only be able to visit one dispensary at a time. And for residents in the northernmost region of the state, the nearest dispensary could be at least two hours away.

An initial review of whether New Hampshire insurance companies are appropriately covering substance abuse treatment shows significant differences in how often claims are denied, but experts identified problems with only a handful of cases.

The probe comes as New Hampshire seeks to expand treatment and recovery services amid a growing heroin and opioid crisis. The state insurance department began looking into the issue in November after hearing from complaints from providers and advocates, and officials presented their preliminary findings in Concord on Friday.

After years of headlines on the ‘obesity epidemic’, the number of Americans dealing with this condition is leveling off. Awareness has increased, nutrition improved, and programs have been put in place, but it remains a stubborn problem, with research showing connections to less-recognized issues like poverty, race, and stigma.

Republican leaders in the New Hampshire House and Senate say they’re willing to consider reauthorizing the state’s Medicaid expansion after its sunset date at the end of 2016 — as long as they can find someone to help foot the costs.

On Monday’s edition of The Exchange, House Speaker Shawn Jasper said it doesn’t seem politically feasible to expect him to pass a plan that requires more public spending.

The American Cancer Society has issued new recommendation, raising the age for screenings from forty to forty five, saying that too many false positives have led to unnecessary and even harmful treatment. Other organizations, however suggest other ages for the test.

As another health insurance enrollment period comes to end, the conversation continues about whether or not the affordable care act is working for individuals and employers in the state. We take stock of who's getting insured, what's on the horizon for Medicaid expansion, and whether the economics of the law are bringing down costs as intended.

The manager for New Hampshire’s prescription drug monitoring program told lawmakers Tuesday that more funding would help the system to better handle an expected increase in use that could come with efforts to more closely monitor opioid prescribing.

As part of a special legislative session on heroin and opioid misuse, Gov. Maggie Hassan and Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley have each proposed giving the program $100,000 in state money to help with technology upgrades that would encourage more widespread use.

While the harmful effects of lead on young children have been well-documented for decades, public health experts say the issue remains a major concern in this state and that stronger policies are needed. We'll look at efforts to curb the impact and prevent future poisoning, and also why change has been so difficult.

Recently, the World Health Organization identified processed meat such as bacon and hot dogs as carcinogens, and cast doubt on the consumption of regular red meat as well. But champions of meat say the warnings are misleading, exaggerated, and a steak dinner can still be enjoyed. We cut deeper into the issue, exploring the pros and cons of meat for health.

Attorney General Joseph Foster says New Hampshire will get about $160,000 from a multi-state settlement with a nursing home pharmacy accused of taking kickbacks from a manufacturer in return for promoting a certain drug.

Federal prosecutors announced last week that the $9.25 million settlement with Kentucky-based PharMerica Corp. resolves claims that it got kickbacks from Abbott Laboratories in exchange for recommending that physicians prescribe Depakote, made by Abbott.

The settlement partially resolves allegations in two whistleblower lawsuits.

Looking to deepen your relationships, professional satisfaction, and personal innovation? Then it’s time to get vulnerable. We speak with TED Talk superstar Brene Brown, whose research says that exposing our secret selves is the most daring way to live. And, while the transgender movement gains ground, we’ll explore the shockingly common occurrence of doctors assigning gender to intersex babies.

Stretching your artistic muscles has been shown to reduce stress and increase positive thinking, but for many people, being more creative sounds like an arduous task. We’ll talk to an artist who makes a bold case for dropping the excuses, and picking up the sketchpad. Then: aphonia, flop sweat, mic fright. Call it what you will, stage fright can be crippling for some performers. On today’s show: a pianist delves into the history of performance anxiety, and her own struggle to overcome it.

A mind-altering drug called ketamine is changing the way some doctors treat depression.

Encouraged by research showing that ketamine can relieve even the worst depression in a matter of hours, these doctors are giving the drug to some of their toughest patients. And they're doing this even though ketamine lacks approval from the Food and Drug Administration for treating depression.